In her recently released book, Disrupting Philanthropy - co-authored with Edward Skloot and Barry Varela, Dr. Lucy Bernholz explores the immediate and longer-term implications of networked digital technologies for philanthropy. 10 years ago the landscape of philanthropy was relatively simple. "There were foundations - private, community, and corporate - that awarded grants to non-profits. Givers gathered information about non-profits mainly through word-of-mouth.  Commercial investment firms were relatively small players on the philanthropic landscape." In 2010 the landscape is very different.

What happens when you put a former Liberal Prime Minister, a former Conservative Party Leader and a leading social impact investor in a room? Fireworks? Pouting and disagreement? Or one of the most electric and optimistic events I’ve been to this year.

On November 6, the Rt. Hon. Paul Martin and Social Capital Partners (SCP), Bill Young came to MaRS for an event called, “Impact Investing: Building Prosperity Outside the Mainstream,” moderated by John Tory and Ilse Treurnicht. The discussion focused on how market forces can be used effectively to solve social challenges in Canada.

Hear Jed Emerson speak at the MaRS centre in Toronto as part of the "Lived It" series. Jed describes his journey from a social worker to discovering the challenges of capital formation and structures in the nonprofit sector. Jed also describes the evolution of social capital markets, and the role of blended value investments within mainstream finance.

It takes some guts to stand up in front of 500+ social entrepreneurs and enablers and tell them that they aren’t doing enough to help the world’s poor. Especially if you’re an invited speaker at the Social Enterprise World Forum, which just wrapped up last Thursday, October 8 in Melbourne, Australia.

However, it could well prove the most constructive advice as people head back to their enterprises and continue on their good work.